Healing Your Migraines

It’s Not Just a Headache

For all of us who have suffered from migraines, there is nothing more irritating than hearing someone suggest you should just drink more water, as if you haven’t tried that. They may compare it to a their own experience of a simple headache, and not understand why you need to lay still for an entire day with the shades drawn.

Having had hundreds of migraines over more than ten years, I have finally come to understand the causes and the solutions for myself. Unfortunately it’s not a one size fits all solution, but there are general guidelines from which everyone can benefit. Think of it as unlocking a safe, and each person has their own combination that they have to figure out.

Stages of a Migraine Episode

Everyone who gets migraines has some premonitory signs of an incoming episode. In the day or hours before one, my neck begins to twist and tighten like a tree trunk, and my brain feels heavy and odd like it isn’t getting oxygen or blood flow. For others, there can be visual aura, dizziness, sudden cravings or bouts of emotion, etc. A few hours or a day after the premonitory stage, the pain stage begins, and once there, no therapy or painkiller has helped me. Soaking my feet in hot water and putting ice on my head provides temporary pain relief because it helps the vasodilation imbalance, but until the next day or the one after, the stabbing and nausea and vomiting will continue. And life still has its demands. Kids still need to be fed and paychecks still need to be earned. In the days after an episode, I would feel weak and foggy, and in the back of my mind, I knew it was a matter of time before the next one. It’s no wonder that many migraineurs are also suffering from depression. 

The Histamine Connection

Brain inflammation can be triggered by many factors including infection, neck injury or misalignment, stress, etc. I had the most severe and frequent migraine attacks the year that I unknowingly had a fungal intestinal infection. It wasn’t until I suffered a ruptured appendix and I was able to heal my gut after surgery, that my migraines diminished in severity and frequency. Because I was so sensitive to migraine triggers during that year of infection, I was able to pinpoint my migraine triggers and make the connection between histamines and migraines. Histamines trigger inflammation and vasodilation, and certain foods and additives that are high in histamines such as MSG, vinegar, alcohol, preserved meats and cheese, leftovers, canned food, etc., are to be avoided as much as possible. A low histamine diet has helped me immensely. I don’t have to avoid these foods completely, but if I look at it like a threshold, I try to avoid the tipping point, and I can stay clear headed.

Vitamins / Supplements

Data has shown that the following Vitamin deficiencies can lead to migraine: Iron, D3, Magnesium, Folate (B2), B6 and B12, and CoEnzyme Q10. Personally, I take a multivitamin that has Iron and B Vitamins in the morning, and I take Magnesium Glycinate at night. It’s important to be careful about reading the label of supplements to determine the quality. Often they can contain ingredients that are triggers (like potato starch for me) or they can have fillers or preservatives that are hard to digest.

Hormonal Migraines

Women are three times more likely than men to suffer from migraines. Hormonal fluctuations like ovulation and menstruation are histamine releasing processes, so we will be more sensitive to our histamine threshold when we are ovulating or menstruating. Women who suffer from hormonal migraines are usually having trouble with the metabolism of hormones. so things like epsom salt baths, green juices, liquid chlorophyll, dandelion tea, and fibrous food are extra helpful to let the body eliminate waste that includes hormones. Stay hydrated with not only enough water, but enough minerals (like magnesium, potassium, and sodium) to help the body incorporate water into the cells.

Phases of the Menstrual Cycle

It’s an Eastern medical tenet that for lasting health balance, we must live in accordance with the seasons. We should rest and be insular in the winter time, and we should be active and most productive in the Spring and Summer. Similarly, women will feel more balanced if they live in accordance with their cycles. During menstruation, we feel more lethargic, and so we should respect the instinct to be more restful, insular, and restorative. Our lives and work may not allow for the kind of rest we need, but if we can carve out a half an hour to lie horizontal, deepen our breathing, it can make all the difference. Every living being needs to rest its battery. Sometimes we have to stop and mentally say to ourselves ‘my only task for the next ____ amount of time is to rest.’

After menstruation, we are more deficient in blood, body fluids, and minerals. It’s a good idea at this phase to eat healthy fats to support estrogen with omega rich foods like seeds, nuts, yams, and fish. Both very low and high levels of body fat are associated with low estradiol levels. My teacher used to say ‘fat is the house of estrogen.’ As estrogen increases and we feel more creative and productive, it will be less of a struggle to get out there and do our thing. We can focus at this time on building up the blood. Red meat is the quickest way to do that. But dark red foods like beets and cherries are also beneficial if red meat is not your thing.

Stress Disrupts Hormones

Here’s the thing - even if our diet is perfectly balanced to support healthy hormones, life stressors can disrupt hormone balance. If we are living a life of constant fight or flight mode, or we are constantly allowing our mental dialogue to be full of angry or anxious thoughts, our pituitary gland is listening, and will respond in accordance. If your body receives the message that you are too stressed out for pregnancy, you will not ovulate, and healthy levels of progesterone won’t be produced. So, not only does physical health require attention to diet, it demands that we pay attention to our mental well being. One thing I learned is how negatively I’m affected by watching the news. Listening to experts discuss the uncertainty, anxiety, and mess of the current world while I feel hopeless to change it stopped making sense to me. Instead, I spend a little time catching up on reading the news but I don’t let myself dive into rabbit holes with it. Also, I carve out time every day, even if it’s ten minutes, to do a breathing exercise or a restorative pose so my nervous system can restore. We cannot control all stressors of life, but we can pay attention to the ways that we can limit them or the ways we might exacerbate them.

I realize that this unlocking of the migraine solution is complicated and an arduous task. But if you are like me and you want a lasting solution that gets to the root cause and doesn’t burden you with other health problems as a side effect, it is worth our best effort. It’s a gift to get to know your body well and understanding what keeps it balanced - a varied diet that supports gut health, watching and limiting triggers, finding good supplements if you are deficient in vitamins and minerals, and making time to relax the nervous system or get some movement therapy, and rest without guilt as much as possible. Sometimes life doesn’t allow for all of this, but It can be a very empowering experience to get healthy and I wish it for everyone.